dot-calm

Dennis R. Preston preston at MSU.EDU
Tue Jan 2 18:41:04 UTC 2007


For many speakers (like me) this is lexical; I have short e in
/trezhr/ (treasure) but /meyzhr/ (measure). In SE Ohio (and adjacent
areas), there is a better established rule, and it works as well for
the voiced palatal as the voiceless, 'measure' and 'mesh' are both
long, and for front and back vowels - fish is feesh,and push is
poosh. In the mid-back, the tense lax distinction is not as well
balanced, and there is considerable variation in the data I have seen
for truly lax wedge (mush) - but note "mush" with the vowel of
"good," often with a semantic distinction), funny lax open o
(caution), and tense o (motion). If wedge is "lax o," "much" should
be "mowsh" (but never is); "caution" as something higher and tenser
is, however, common. Course we're also dealing with some speakers who
lack an open o short o distinction, and that's part of this mix I
reckon.

dInIs



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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       David Bergdahl <dlbrgdhl at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      Re: dot-calm
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>On 1/2/07, Dennis R. Preston <preston at msu.edu> wrote:
>>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: dot-calm
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  This works only for people who incorrectly pronounce "measure" with short
>>  e.
>>
>>  dInIs
>>
>>  This pronunciation does not, strangely, predict "special" = "spacial"
>although I don't why it doesn't--tensing E before ZH seems a natural
>exension of E > e before SH!  Found throughout Ohio (help me w/this Bev)
>even in the north (E > e ____SH found mostly in our [Appalachian] part of
>the state)
>
>-David Bergdahl
>Athens, Ohio
>
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Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
15-C Morrill Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1036
Phone: (517) 353-4736
Fax: (517) 353-3755
preston at msu.edu

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